A private bicycle room created by a snow plow.
Someone tried stealing Megatron’s Taco Bell order.
Flying with the Arctic wind.
The world is so full of cuteness
An alley in Glen Ellyn‽
Creative places to lock your bike.
… and more
All of this happened on a lunch break. It was 26 degrees. Snow on the ground. Let’s go biking!
Flying with the Arctic wind
I haven’t ridden my bike in about six weeks. During that time, I’ve gotten my bike tuned up. My first time in my entire life ever bringing my bicycle into a shop to have it cleaned and tuned up. Boy howdy, my bike sure does ride nice! It felt like I was FLYING!
On the way home, biking in the other direction, the wind was completely blowing in my face. ARCTIC WIND! I CAN DO THIS! So of course, when I was biking TO Taco Bell, it was easy, because the wind was pushing me along. Heh.
The world is so full of cuteness
You can walk into a Walgreens and find cuteness everywhere. Cute plushies, cute cards, cute toys. It simply makes me just go agush. Sometimes when i’m in the aisle I say out loud, “oh this world is so full of cuteness. I cannot handle it!” Like, these Bluey fingertip puppets—ON SALE! I’m making sure to tell Santa to put these into my daughter’s stockings. OH THE JOY OF HAVING KIDS THAT ENJOY BLUEY!
An alley in Glen Ellyn‽
The streets were so clear, even the alley behind the weird machine shop was clear. That’s my normal bicycle path from Walgreens to Taco Bell. Did you know that I love Walgreens? And I love Taco Bell? And my town has both of them close to each other. They are connected by this alley. Oh this, alley. Living in Glen Ellyn, there are no alleys. But this. This is an alley.
Creative places to lock your bike
In addition to a lack of alleys in Glen Ellyn, there is a severe shortage of bike racks to lock up your bike. Like, they don’t exist. I could probably count on one hand how many bike racks there are for the stores on Roosevelt Road.
Next to the Taco Bell is a weird machine repair shop, Dreisilker Electric Motors. They have a giant parking lot with lots of cars. I guess cars belonging to the workers? Wouldn’t it be ironic if a motor repair shop had a bicycle rack? Well, Taco Bell doesn’t have one, so I use Dreisilker’s fence. It’s under some evergreen trees. One time after I left Taco Bell, it started torrentially pouring. The trees provided a nice canopy.
A private bicycle room
With the record November snow we got this year, there are large piles of snow around town. Dreisilker piled up all their snow right by the fence where I park my bike. At first the snow pile seemed like an obstacle for me getting to the fence. But biking around the hill, I could get to the fence.
Oh wonderful! The snow pile make like a natural wall around where I lock my bike. Couple that with the overhead evergreen trees, and I have my own little private bicycle room.
I wanted to bring a lawn chair and camp out there with my laptop, mooching off Taco Bell’s wifi.
Karen tried stealing Megatron’s Taco Bell order
During Covid, all the fast food places got really empty. Even a few years afterwards. Things are finally starting to get back to normal in that sense. Today both digital kiosks were being used. Once one of them opened up, I hurried to get my order in ahead of two older ladies who were chit-chatting about what items to get. I always order just one item at Taco Bell, so I knew I could be lightning quick.
I don’t know why I was in a rush. It’s not like this was a huge line. I guess I’m used to being the only one in the restaurant and getting my food right away.
I managed to get my order in just before them. In fact, as I walked to a table, I could see they were on the check-out screen.
I stripped off all my winter biking gear. Face mask, double-layer gloves, etc. I’m sure it’s quite a sight to see someone biking in the winter. Especially in the burbs where you don’t see that many bikes anyways outside of the trails.
When I order my food at Taco Bell, I use the name “Megatron X.” I always get a kick out of the worker calling out “Megatron” for my Cheesy Double Beef Burrito.
A few moments later, two orders were brought to the counter. The worker said, “Order for Megatron.” And then immediately, “Order for Karen.”
Karen tried taking my tray, I pointed to the tag and said, “This order is for Megatron.”
The ladies were embarrassed and said, “Oh, our order is on just one tray.” I silently smiled and walked away with my tray, just like how Megatron would do.
Taco Bell has a Christmas tree with cute snowman ornaments
It’s always fascinating when a fast food restaurant puts up non-branded Christmas decorations. If it were officially from Taco Bell corporate, you know there would be Taco Bell branding all over it. Who does this? The owners? The workers?
Cubs mittens work well over painters’ gloves for winter biking
When biking, I always wear a pair of neon green painting gloves. I’m a big fan of visibility (neon green helmet, neon green vest, neon green straps on my backpack). Whenever I hand signal—and you always hand signal when turning on a bicycle, right? Right? Whenever I hand signal, I like my hands to be more visible. Communication is so important when on the roads. That goes for you, too, cars! Use your turn signals so we know where you’re going!
Anyway, these neon green painters’ gloves are a bit cold in the winter. I biked down my block on my way to Walgreens and Taco Bell. My hands started getting cold. I immediately turned around to get something warmer.
Don’t let your hands get cold!
We live in such a wonderful age with a plethora of clothing options. Don’t deny yourself layers of gloves to keep yourself warm.
I grabbed my Cubs mittens and put them on over my green gloves. I was a little sad that these mittens weren’t neon green or reflective. However, the Cubbie blue in these mittens is a nice bright blue, so I felt pretty good about wearing them.